Studying Shakespeare: General Knowledge

What did Shakespeare look like? Believe it or not, we don’t know a whole lot about the Bard’s personal life. It’s even difficult to know if our famous images of him are accurate! You can see some of those images on this site with a brief statement about their potential accuracy.

Who Was William Shakespeare by Celeste Mannis. This easy to read book will provide your kids with a history of Shakespeare, The Globe, and his works.

Studying Shakespeare: Wordsmith Websites

There is also a great video with 10 words that Shakespeare used and we don’t know what they mean, but use parental caution. The assumed meaning of one word is “prostitute” or “loose woman” and that is shared in the video.

Mixed-Up Word Games – Pop these up on the screen and play along with kids for fun. There are anagrams and more!

Expressions from Shakespeare – I wouldn’t use these as a worksheet necessarily, but I would discuss them with my kids. It would be fun to pick one and illustrate it.

Online Shakespeare Word Games – Two games you can play with the kids are on this page. I really like the second one – Weird Words. See if you can guess the meanings.

Studying Shakespeare: Fun with Insults

Hey there you ill faced fox! Did you know that Shakespeare was the master of creatively crafted insults? Have some fun exploring and using them with your kids.

Online Insult Generator. NOTE: While you can land on an “idle butt”, the spinner could also land on an “insolent ass”. I believe both “bit-h” and “ass” are on the noun side, so once again…use discretion.

My kids and I quickly hit “spin” if it lands on a word they shouldn’t repeat. We had a great time and the kids and I still walk around the house and occasionally call someone a “scurvy weed” after a fun afternoon on this insult generator.

Make your own Insult Generator. Keep it clean and pick the words you want to use from this site. Put them in three bags and let the insult generating begin as you pick a word out of each bag.

Make your own Compliment Generator. While the insults are fun, if you prefer to play with compliments instead (or in addition to the insults) then you can use the lists found on this site.

Shakespeare Insult Generator. Play with the spiral flipbook version. (Note: Rip out the words you aren’t comfortable with. I suspect there are only 2-3.)

Shakespeare’s Insults: Educating Your Wit. Get an interesting education with this title! In this book, you can look up Shakespeare’s insults as they are organized by play and you can learn the ones found in the play you are reading.

Studying Shakespeare: Wordsmith Resources

Magnetic Shakespeare – Stick the words on the fridge or a magnet board and let the kids play. (NOTE: Be sure to check out the words first and pull out any you aren’t comfortable with. There is a curse word or two in this set.)

The pages on the left contain a story about the history of London, the theater scene, as well as Shakespeare and his works. The words in the story that are bolded are words and phrases we credit to Shakespeare. The pages on the right explain the meaning of the phrases and where you can find them in his plays.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. This book is a handy resource for understanding and memorizing Shakespeare. The book includes twenty-four passages for memorization as well as history and explanations. This is a must have!

To Sleep Perchance to Dream: A Child’s Book of Rhymes by William Shakespeare and illustrated by James Mayhew. This one is perfect for introducing your kids to well-known lines and passages from Shakespeare’s works. It is also perfect for a Shakespeare Poetry Teatime.

Studying Shakespeare: Facebook Live Video Week One

If you want to watch some details about the information I shared on Facebook during Shakespeare Month, Week One then this video was my Friday summary of the week:

Hope this fun introduction to the Bard leaves you feeling less intimidated and more inspired to tackle the words of Shakespeare! There are still three weeks left to join in the fun on Facebook. Week Two will be all about famous lines and introducing plays! Follow my Facebook Page to keep up.